Peter Jackson revives Tintin at Cannes

Peter Jackson finally gave the Tintin sequel its first real pulse in years. At Cannes on May 13, during the festival’s “Rendez-vous” conversation series, Jackson said a new Tintin film is actively in the works, that he has completed the script with Fran Walsh, and that he plans to direct it. That sounds simple, but it matters because Tintin has spent more than a decade in the category of “maybe someday.” Now it has moved into the much rarer category of “there is actually a script and a director.” ### What exactly did Jackson say? He didn’t just tease interest. He said the project is “an active, real thing,” and multiple Cannes reports say he told the audience he had been working on the screenplay while at the festival. The other important part is the commitment to direct. For a movie that has been floating around for years without a concrete step forward, that is the difference between a wish and a production path. (festival-cannes.com) ### Why is Cannes part of the story? Because this was not a random hallway quote. Jackson was in Cannes to receive an Honorary Palme d’Or, and the festival had already scheduled him as one of its featured onstage guests for the official talk series. So the Tintin update landed in a high-visibility setting — basically the kind of room where industry people immediately treat an offhand comment as a real signal. (screendaily.com) ### Why has Tintin been dormant so long? The first film, *The Adventures of Tintin*, came out in 2011 as a Spielberg-directed, performance-capture adaptation of Hergé’s comics, with Jackson attached to direct the sequel. The idea for follow-ups was never the problem. The problem was momentum. Jackson spent the next stretch on *The Hobbit* films and later on documentaries, while the sequel kept surviving mostly as occasional reassurance from people around it. (deadline.com) ### Why does “script complete” matter so much? Because development hell is full of projects that are still “being discussed.” A finished script is not a release date, but it is a hard piece of progress. It means the movie has moved past broad intention and into something that can actually be budgeted, revised, cast, scheduled, and boarded out. In franchise terms, this is like finally getting the train onto the tracks after years of standing in the station. (punchdrunkcritics.com) ### Is this Jackson’s big return to narrative features? Looks that way. Trade coverage tied the Tintin reveal to the fact that Jackson has not directed a narrative feature since *The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies* in 2014, even though he has remained busy with documentary work and producing. That gives the news an extra layer — this is not just a franchise revival, but potentially his first fiction feature as director in roughly 12 years. (worldofreel.com) ### What about the other Tolkien movie? Jackson also used Cannes to explain why Andy Serkis, not Jackson, is directing *The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum*. That matters because it clarifies his lane. He is still involved in Middle-earth, but the movie he appears to be personally stepping up to direct himself is Tintin. That makes the Cannes update feel less like a casual aside and more like a choice. (thedailystar.net) ### So what happens next? The obvious missing pieces are financing details, a studio timetable, and any production or release date. None of that was announced at Cannes. But the project now has the two things it had been missing in public for years — a completed script and Jackson openly saying he will direct. For a sequel this delayed, that is the real threshold. (deadline.com) ### Bottom line Tintin is back on the board for real — not because Cannes generated hype, but because Jackson finally attached concrete work to the promise. After 15 years of waiting, that is the first update that actually changes the odds. (screendaily.com)